Thursday, April 05, 2012

Wii U: Still significantly more powerful than Xbox 360/PS3 *updated*

So apparently, this is what graphics from a system that has "graphics not as powerful" as the Xbox 360 and PS3 is capable of doing on underclocked barely alpha dev kits. It amazes me that this kind of press can spread from one website who has no named source as their guide and has never had an exclusive on anything of relevance before two days ago. EPIC, Crytek, Gearbox and even bipolar Vigil have said that the Wii U is more powerful than the current HD consoles.

Back at E3 2011 Gearbox had this to say about still evolving Wii U tech:

"Right now we're still finding out what kind of final tech specs the Wii U is going to have," said Martel. "We've got the [Aliens: Colonial Marines] engine running on the Wii U, and as far as the console goes, you're going to see textures at a resolution that you haven't seen on [the current] generation," said Martel.

Mike Capps & Mark Rein from EPIC Games have made several comments on the Wii U in the past year:

July 2011:

"At the launch event at E3, some of the products that you saw running on Wii U were based on Unreal Engine technology. So that kind of gives you an idea of where we are in that space. You can certainly use our engine on that platform – it's a natural fit from a technology perspective," Capps added. "It opens up some doors that weren't open before on current generation consoles because it is going to be a powerful box."

"Do you remember the Zelda demo they had on it? Would you not buy a Wii U just to play that? Of course you would," Rein said. "That's what Nintendo is all about. Their hardware is the software delivery service for their great content. That Zelda demo was gorgeous and we can do even more than that with Unreal Engine 3. I think it will do great."

"Nintendo still has a lot to announce with their platform, and it's not up to us to go ahead of them," he told Joystiq. "I think it's a great platform and I'm really excited about it, particularly with this game, there's a lot of exciting opportunities like, 'Wow, my motion tracker is there, and I can move it like this!'" he said as he moved his arms side to side. "There's just so much cool stuff."

"There's a lot that we can do with that screen," Pitchford said. "It's a really cool system -- it's pretty powerful. I want to be careful, because I don't want to risk any sensitive information that Nintendo's not ready to share yet, but in our experience it's a great system. I think it's a really nice bridge to the next generation. I think people will be surprised. I don't know off the top of my head how many of the specs they've released, so I want to be very careful not to jump the gun, but we're very pleased with the hardware. And even since they gave us our first alpha kit, our very first 'pre-prototype' development hardware that they kind of let us play around with, they've done so many things to make the platform better. So it's getting better for us as developers."

It is also pretty common knowledge that in the tech demos shown above, the Wii U was producing some effects (the lighting for example) that were not possible on the current HD platforms. All this produced on dev kits that were hampered from needing to be underclocked to prevent overheating. When you also factor in the rather large power boost the kits got in January, Nintendo will truly have a Wii U system ready for E3 that will really surprise a lot of people with what it can do graphically (like what Mark Rein said earlier).

It's pretty sad how easily people and different websites (IGN & 1UP) can get caught up in anonymous talk from unknown sources. These type of things should not even be reported when official game developers have already made statements concerning the Wii U's power. It's just bad journalism and misinformation.

If you are a "Nintendo is doomed" kind of person, then you would be quick to believe anything negative about Nintendo's new console. However, regardless of who is a fanboy for what company or console, at the end of the day official statements areofficial statements, no matter how much faith you want to put in anonymous comments that seem to match your personal feelings and put you in a state of denial about the truth.

7 comments:

elgato_8569
said...

Don't bother. Bad press will ALWAYS generate more hits. You and me could go to every website and try to explain what you just posted to them, but it will fall into deaf ears, or blind eyes in the case of the Internet. It's the way it is and you will not change it. The best way to stop this is to avoid it altogether and let it die. They will be the laugh of the week once E3 rolls around.

Yeah, that is what I wanted to do but then I saw sites like 1UP and IGN posting stories that seemed to take that information as fact. The followers of this site may have also wanted to hear my opinion since I had not said anything up until this point.

"I think the machine itself will be one of the best looking versions of the game, because they’ve got more RAM than some of the other things and they’re late in the cycle, so they’ve got this really great processor and all that kind of stuff.”

From Brian Martell of Gearbox Software. A person we know who exists from a real developer group who is working on a Wii U title and has for a few years at least who doesn't hide behind the veil of aminonity.

I can tell you that I own a 42" TV at home and I've played a number of high graphics games on my 360 on that TV and they looked great. I've also seen the Zelda demo and the Japenese Garden demo in person. The Garden demo looked equal graphically, if not a little under a Gears of War 3. But the Zelda demo was above and beyond anything I've ever seen on the Xbox. I "played" it twice too, so I got a second chance to make sure I wasn't just dazzled by the new Wii U experience.

All in all, I'm not concerned in the slightest for the Wii U graphics. They will be plenty good enough. It just comes down to the games.

This is utterly frustrating! Why is it that "anonymous" tips (which aren't even considered "reliable sources") get the benefit of the doubt, yet official statements are largely ignored. Right now, a Japanese analyst is taking these rumors to heart and warned people not to invest in Nintendo stock!

Not to mention only a while ago Sony announced that they won't seek to make their next-gen console the most powerful, yet there are rumored specs that position it at the top! Sony hasn't said anything about the PS4's power since and everyone in the gaming press jumping onto these rumors as if they are fact!

There is an old saying that you shouldn't shoot the messenger. Well, FUCK THAT! If gaming journalism has been reduced into this pedantic bullshit that makes Fox News live up to their "Fair and Balanced" slogan, I say go in guns blazing!